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G20 police trial: Defence argues Adam Nobody lied

Prosecution says police were trying to justify beating of protester after the fact.

Adam Nobody suffered a broken nose and cheekbone during a G20 protest at Queen's Park in which several amateur videos showed him being brought down by five or six officers. One of them was on trial this week, charged with assault with a weapon - his police baton.
. (JAYME POISSON / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani waits for an elevator during a break from his trial at College Park. He's accused of using excessive force while arresting G20 protester Adam Nobody. (Karissa Donkin / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

The fate of a Toronto police officer accused of using excessive force when arresting a G20 protester now rests in the hands of Justice Louise Botham.

Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani pleaded not guilty to assaulting G20 protester Adam Nobody with a weapon, his police baton, on June 26, 2010.

Andalib-Goortani testified that Nobody was resisting arrest during protests on that day, and that he struck and jabbed the protester with his police baton, in accordance with his training, to help finish the arrest.

Nobody, in his testimony last week, denied resisting arrest or inciting the crowd to be violent toward police.

Those two conflicting testimonies and the credibility of Nobody and Andalib-Goortani dominated the closing arguments delivered by the Crown and defence in the judge-alone trial Friday.

He said Nobody was acting like a field general on that day, urging people on from the front lines of the protest. Several police officers testified that Nobody acted aggressive and tried to turn the crowd against police that day, and managed to elude police during previous attempts to arrest him.

The “so-called resistance” during the arrest may have been Nobody’s natural reaction to punches and kicks, Crown prosecutor Philip Perlmutter said, adding that it would have been difficult for Andalib-Goortani to tell the difference when the arrest happened so quickly.

Whether or not the cop acted in accordance with his training or not doesn’t necessarily justify his actions, the prosecutor added. Nor, he argued, does it mean he acted lawfully, which is the question at the centre of this trial.

Earlier this week, Andalib-Goortani narrated, frame by frame, seconds of amateur video of the arrest to explain what he remembers.

In reality, Perlmutter argued, the encounter happened too quickly for the cop to have observed such detail. He accused the defence of using the video to justify Andalib-Goortani’s conduct after the fact.

On the day of the protests, Andalib-Goortani was assigned to a team that had to make sure demonstrators had clear protest routes.

As the day progressed and the situation became more volatile, the officer said he was given a direct order to become part of an arrest team that would dart out from behind the public order unit, which had formed a line, and apprehend people in the crowd who were designated for arrest.

That’s something Andalib-Goortani didn’t know how to do properly, Black argued, and something he was ill-equipped to do with only a helmet and gas mask for protection.

Andalib-Goortani has called the day of the G20 protests the hardest day of his policing career.

It’s the kind of thing, Black said, that a police officer can never really be trained for, calling it a “complete breakdown of law and order to the point ... where, unbelievably, the police were running away from the protesters at one point.”

As a result, Perlmutter argued, Andalib-Goortani’s feelings overtook his judgment, and he “exceeded the degree of force allowed by law.”

Botham could deliver her verdict in September.

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